All across Southeast Asia, the onset
of the monsoon season is cause for celebration. The great rains
that sweep out of the South China Sea each May bring smiles to
the populace, for they carry the water which nurtures their livelihood – rice.

In Burma's Mogok Stone Tract, the sound of water
is also something quite special. But the rains that wash over the hillsides of
this remote valley nurture an entirely different crop – rubies – the
finest in the world. And this year, the monsoon started early. The rain is falling
and the population is smiling. But today's smiles are not simply because
of the rain. Today, the people of Mogok smile because, for the first time in
over three decades, tomorrow looks better than today.

Figure 1 A
young boy frolicking in the water near Mogok's Ho
Mine, famous for producing some of the world's finest
rubies. Water in Burma's Mogok Stone Tract brings
smiles to all. Not only does the area's heavy rain
(over 150 inches yearly) play a vital role in freeing
rubies and other gems from their mountain birthplaces,
but water is also a necessary element of the area's
mining industry. (Photo: R.W. Hughes)

Mogok: Valley of Rubies

The exact date when rubies were first discovered
at Mogok is unknown. No doubt the first humans
to settle the area found rubies and spinels in
the rivers and streams. But according to local
legend, the origins of the ruby mines were as follows:

Long before the Buddha walked the earth, the northern
part of Burma was said to be inhabited only by wild animals and
birds of prey. One day the biggest and oldest eagle in creation
flew over a valley. On a hillside shone an enormous morsel of fresh
meat, bright red in color. The eagle attempted to pick it up, but
its claws could not penetrate the blood-red substance. Try as he
may, he could not grasp it. After many attempts, at last he understood.
It was not a piece of meat, but a sacred and peerless stone, made
from the fire and blood of the earth itself. The stone was the
first ruby on earth and the valley was Mogok.

This is the
legendary Valley of Rubies, impenetrable due to the deadly serpents
which covered its floor. To retrieve rubies, men would cast lumps
of meat into the valley via catapults. Rubies would become attached
to the meat, which was then carried out of the valley by large
birds of prey. After the birds had sated their appetites, men
would climb into their nests and retrieve the rubies from their
droppings.

A city built on rubies

While rubies have been scraped out of the dirt
at Mogok since prehistoric times, this underground
wealth has not always enriched those living directly
above. As knowledge of the crimson stones spread,
more powerful rulers from outside the area levied
tribute, payable in rubies. By the sixth century,
local inhabitants were paying two viss (about 3.2
kg) of stones yearly to the central government.

By the time the first Europeans visited Burma in the
fifteenth century, the gem wealth of the country was well known. In 1597 AD,
when the Burmese monarch, Nuha-Thura Maha Dhama-Yaza tired of getting his rubies
second-hand, he simply annexed the district, exchanging a small piece of his
territory to the hapless Shan saopha (prince), who was powerless to stop
him. Even today, a look at a map of Burma illustrates the remnants of this one-sided
deal. The border separating Sagaing Division from the Shan State makes a sudden
jog to enclose the area at Mogok.

After 1597 AD, the Mogok Stone Tract was operated as
the private province of whoever had the strongest army. Mostly, this was the
Burmese kings, who decreed that all stones above the value of Rs2000 were property
of the crown. Concealing them was punishable by torture and death. So harsh was
this rule that, by the time of the British annexation of Upper Burma in 1885,
much of the local population had fled.

Figure 2 Miners
at Inn Chauk, just north of Mogok, are dwarfed by massive
limestone boulders as they hunt for rubies. (Photo: R.W.
Hughes)

The brief
period between the annexation and arrival of British troops represented
the first time in centuries that miners were able to operate
independent of state control. It was also to be the last. During
the colonial period, Britain leased out the mines to an ill-fated
London syndicate (the Burma Ruby Mines Ltd.); since independence
in 1948, the Burmese government has kept a tight rein on the
mines. From 1962 onwards, the country embarked on the "Burmese
Road to Socialism," which brought further restrictions on
gem mining and trading. The industry's nadir was reached
in 1969, when the Ministry of Mines banned private exploration
and mining of gems, effectively nationalizing the entire trade
in precious stones.

In the past few years, trading in Burma has undergone
a quiet revolution. Just four years ago, private gem trading was illegal; today,
both rough and cut stones can be freely purchased by foreigners with dollars
from licensed traders, with only a 10% export tax to be paid. Thus, for the first
time in over 30 years, private trading and export of gems is both simple and legal.
Keep in mind, though, that the purchase of gems in source countries such as Burma
or Sri Lanka is strictly for professionals. Good stones are rare, even in Burma
and synthetics and imitations abound. In short, if you're not an expert,
stay away.

Pilgrimage to Mogok

I first began traveling the world as a teenager,
and those travels eventually brought me to Burma,
at age 19. It was there that I saw my first Burmese
ruby. I was immediately hooked, head-over-heels
in love with a pebble dug out of the ground in
a remote Burmese valley. It wasn't simply
the value which drew me to ruby. If it was value,
I would just go out and get a few kilos of gold.
No, it was something else entirely, something
I couldn't quite put my finger on.

My love for rubies eventually developed into a desire
to visit their source. Everyone has their own pilgrimage to make, their own personal
Mecca. My Mecca was Mogok. But the area had been strictly off-limits to foreigners
since 1962. Finally, in April of 1996, it happened. The Mogok door cracked open.
This is what I found:

Mogok (1500 m) is located some 210 km and seven hours
by road northeast of Mandalay. Consisting of heavily-jungled hills rising to
a height of 2347 m above sea level, the Stone Tract covers about 400 sq miles,
although only a portion (70 sq miles) is gem bearing. Considered one of the most
scenic areas in Burma, it is home to a number of colorful ethnic groups, as well
as a variety of wildlife, including elephants, tiger, bear and leopard.

The town itself is today a bustling city; the entire
district probably contains 300,000–500,000 inhabitants. These consist of
Burmese and Shan (Buddhist), Nepalese Gurkhas (Hindu), Lisu (Christian and Animist),
along with a smattering of Muslims, Sikhs and those of Eurasian origin. The region's
population has swelled tremendously in recent years, following the Burmese government's
liberalization of the gem trade.

Occurrence of ruby & mining methods

Mogok's rubies occur in a crystalline
limestone (marble). Bit by bit, millions
of years of weathering freed the rubies from
their marble womb, carrying them down from
the hills to the valley floors, where they
have settled in the bottom of the streams
and rivers. It is from these ancient river
gravels (locally termed byon) that
the majority of stones have been recovered.

Five traditional types of mines exist in Mogok:

The pit method for mining the valley
alluvials. Small circular pits are termed twin-lon ('twin'),
with larger pits known variously as lebin, kobin and inbye. The twin-lon was
once the most common type of mining, but today it is rarely
seen. More common are the lebin and kobin.

The hmyaw-dwin ('hmyaw')
or open-trench method, for excavating hillside deposits. Since
the easily reached valley alluvials are now largely exhausted, hmyaw mining
has largely replaced the twin-lon.

The lu-dwin ('lu'),
where gem-bearing materials are extracted from limestone caves
and fissures.

Quarrying (tunneling) directly into
the host rock to extract rubies and sapphires.

Open cast, which has been performed
since the time of the British Burma Ruby Mines Ltd.

Some of the
richest ruby finds have been made within lu-dwin caverns
and crevices. One cavern proved so vast in size and the depth
of the byon so great, that hmyaw-dwin and twin-lon were
set up inside the cavern itself. Unfortunately the roof
caved in, putting an ignoble halt to the proceedings. I was told
of a cave near Yadana Kaday-kadar with a room the size of a football
field, while another lu-dwin near Chaunggyi was said to
be 2.4 km long.

Figure 4 Important
goods are kept close at hand. In the photo above, a miner
at Mogok's Padan Sho mine shows off his latest find.
(Photo: R.W. Hughes)

The lu-dwin is by far the most dangerous type
of mining, since it generally involves climbing down into narrow cracks and crevices
which may be several kilometers in length and over a kilometer deep. In 1992,
several miners died in a cave-in at a lu-dwin at Than Ta Yar.

One particularly rich lu-dwin near Bawpadan was
termed the "Royal Lu" because, during the time of the Burmese monarchy,
gems found there were of such high quality that they had to be turned over to
the king. During my second visit to Mogok (May, 1996), I spent an entirely enjoyable
afternoon scurrying through the long-abandoned crevices of Bawpadan's Royal
Lu.

Washing the byon

Once sufficient byon is obtained,
it is transported to the washing area, where,
in a process similar to panning for gold, the
heavier ruby is separated from the lighter waste.

Output from mechanized mines goes to a washing plant,
to be separated by machine. Today, the government operates a central washing
plant, but most mechanized mines have their own washing plants.

The kanasé custom

Almost inevitably, some gems escape capture and are carried
away to the tailings. According to local custom, tailings may be
searched by anyone, with all stones found becoming property of
the finder. Under the British Company, however, this was later
restricted to women only; any man who so much as bent down to touch
a stone on the ground, unless a worker or license holder, was subject
to imprisonment. Thus, today is largely women and children who
mine in this way. They are termed kanasé ma (tailings
women).

This custom has resulted in the wholesale theft of large
numbers of stones, as well as providing a convenient method for the disposal
of stolen goods. The way it works is thus: a dishonest workman may catch sight
of a stone. He then passes it secretly to a nearby kanasé woman
or tells her where to search for it. Moments later, there is a shout of joy as
the woman has just "uncovered" a stone which, by custom, is hers to
keep. The British Company went to great lengths to prevent the theft of stones,
enclosing the sorting areas, requiring workers to wear steel masks so that stones
could not be swallowed, etc. However, all this was to no avail because of the kanasé custom.

The Nga
Mauk Ruby

lthough
the Burmese monarchs laid claim to all rubies worth over
Rs2000, the case of the Nga Mauk Ruby illustrates
that many of the large crimson gems slipped through their
hands. Nga Mauk, a poor miner, uncovered a fine ruby
weighing about 560 ct during the reign of one of the
Burmese monarchs. Noticing a crack that split the piece
neatly in two, he presented one half to the King, and
secretly sent the other half to Calcutta for sale. But
the king learned of the fraud. As a warning to others,
he ordered all the inhabitants of Nga Mauk's village
to be burned alive. The remains of this horrible cremation
can be seen at a place called Laungzin, which means "fiery
platform."

Nga Mauk's wife,
Daw Nann, apparently escaped, for she is
said to have watched his blazing death
from atop a hill near Kyatpyin. Today,
this hill is called Daw Nann Gyi Taung
('the hill where Daw Nann looked down').
As for the Nga Mauk Ruby, the second half
was eventually purchased and returned to
Burma. The two pieces were cut in Mandalay,
one forming a grand stone weighing 98 ct
called the Nga Mauk Ruby, the other weighing
74 ct, and called Kallahpyan ('returned
from India'). Both pieces disappeared
when the British annexed upper Burma in
1885.

Brokers

The role of brokers is important, both at Mogok and further
north at the Hpakan jade mines. Each dealer employs them to act
as his eyes and ears.

Brokers not only assist in valuations and sales, but
also obtain intelligence about what valuable stones have been recently mined,
who the owners are, and, just as importantly, who the stones are being offered
to and the prices bid. Owners of valuable stones do their best to keep details
secret, for if a piece is bid upon, when the spies of other dealers learn of
the bid, no one will offer more. In other words, if one dealer believes it is
worth only 50,000 Kyat, then why offer more?

This situation results in purchases taking place in a
cloak-and-dagger atmosphere as both buyer and seller seek to conceal their activities.
Stolen stones in particular may be offered at remote jungle rendezvous',
sometimes in the dead of the night with only a hand torch as illumination. Legitimate
goods may also be offered in this way, being represented as stolen in the hope
that this would increase the buyer's feeling that he is getting a steal of
a deal.

Mogok's gem markets

A number of gem markets operate in the Mogok
area, each specializing in a particular type of
stone. One of the most interesting is the late-afternoon
market at Myintada, where colorfully-clad women
can be seen haggling over all kinds of small rough
rubies. Each broker is equipped with the tools
of the trade – a wide-brimmed hat to keep
the sun off, a small brass plate upon which the
stones are placed, and, most importantly, a keen
eye.

Figure 6 A
young girl breaks marble in search of rubies at Kyauk
Saung, in the Mogok Stone Tract. She told the author
it was her summer holiday, and that she would be back
in school in a few days. (Photo: R.W. Hughes)

Burmese rubies compared

Until the discoveries in Vietnam in the late
1980's, Burmese rubies were without peer.
Other sources, such as Kenya and Afghanistan, produced
the occasional stone which could stand with Burma's
best, but these were exception. In historic terms,
Mogok rubies are in a class by themselves.

Let
it glow

The color of
a fine Mogok ruby is due to a combination of two factors. First,
the best stones have high color intensity. This results from
a mixture of the slightly bluish red body color and the purer
red fluorescent emission.

Due to one of those glorious accidents of nature, ruby
has both a red body color and red fluorescence. Furthermore,
most rubies will actually fluoresce to visible light. This red fluorescence
is one of the keys to a fine ruby's appearance, for it covers up the dark
areas of the stone caused by extinction from cutting. Thai/Cambodian rubies possess
a purer red body color, [1] but lack
the strong fluorescence. In Thai/Cambodian rubies, where light is properly reflected
off pavilion facets (brilliance), the color is good. However, where facets are
cut too steep, light exits through the side instead of returning to the eye,
creating darker areas (extinction). All stones possess this extinction to a certain
degree, but in fine Burmese rubies, the strong crimson fluorescence masks it.
The best Mogok stones actually glow red and appear as though Mother Nature brushed
a broad swath of fluorescent red paint across the face of the stone. This is
the carbuncle of the ancients, a term derived from the glowing embers
of a fire.

For the
love of a brother

rotherly
love knows no bounds, as the following tale shows. When
two brothers bought property near Yadanar Kaday Kadar,
in Burma's Mogok Stone Tract, their love for each
other was so strong they purchased adjoining lots, all
the better to visit, raise families together, grow rich
together. Alas, Lady Luck doesn't kiss all the boys.
While the eldest brother found many fine gems, Brother
No. 2, mining just beside him, found nothing.

But brotherly love is
stronger than any artificial line in the
dirt. Seeing his younger brother had found
nothing, the properties were exchanged
and mining continued. Alas, Lady Luck doesn't
kiss all the boys. For the eldest brother,
every spade brought forth gems. But his
younger brother, mining the same property
that had recently yielded such riches,
again found nothing.

Brotherly sorrow also
knows no bounds. Thus Brother No. 1 made
the ultimate sacrifice. Not content to
merely trade plots., he allowed his brother
to mine both pieces of land. Again, his
brother found nothing. Lady Luck doesn't
kiss all the boys.

Smooth
as silk

The second factor
in the Burmese ruby quality equation is something gemologists
call "silk." Silk refers to tiny needle inclusions
which scatter light onto facets that would otherwise be extinct.
This gives the color a velvety softness, as well as spreading
it across a greater part of the gem's face. Thai/Cambodian
rubies contain no rutile silk, and thus possess more extinction.
But too much silk is not a good thing. The best rubies have
just a trace of extremely fine silk scattered throughout.

In actuality, rubies from most sources possess strong
red fluorescence and silk similar to those from Burma, with the Thai/Cambodian
rubies being the exception. However, those from Sri Lanka are generally too pale
in color, while with other sources, such as Kenya, Pakistan and Afghanistan,
material clean enough for faceting is rare. Thus the combination of fine color
(body color plus fluorescence) and facetable material (i.e., internally clean)
has put the Burmese ruby squarely atop the crimson mountain. Some old-timers
consider Burma to be not just the best source, but the only source of
stones fit to be called ruby. When one considers that today probably 90% or more
of newly-mined rubies owe a good measure of their clarity and color to heat treatment,
this statement does not seem so outlandish (unfortunately, most Burmese rubies
are today also heat treated).

Pigeon's blood: Chasing the elusive
Burmese bird

The Burmese term for ruby is padamya ('plenty
of mercury'). Other terms for ruby are derived
from the word for the seeds of the pomegranate
fruit. [2]

Traditionally, the Burmese have referred to the finest
hue of ruby as "pigeon's blood" (ko-twe), a term which
may be of Chinese or Arab origin. Witness the following from the Arab, al-Akfani,
who described thus the top variety of ruby: Rummani has the colour of
the fresh seed of pomegranate or of a drop of blood (drawn from an artery) on
a highly polished silver plate. al-Akfani, ca. 1348 AD. Some have compared this
color to the center of a live pigeon's eye. Halford-Watkins described it
as a rich crimson without trace of blue overtones. Others have defined this still
further as the color of the first two drops of blood from the nose of
a freshly slain Burmese pigeon. But the pièce de résistance of
pigeon's-blood research has to be that of James Nelson, who finally put
the question to rest:

In an attempt to seek a more quantitative description
for this mysterious red colour known only to hunters and the few
fortunate owners of the best Burmese rubies, the author sought
the help of the London Zoo. Their Research Department were quick
to oblige and sent a specimen of fresh, lysed, aerated, pigeon's
blood. A sample was promptly spectrophotometered…. The Burmese
bird can at last be safely removed from the realms of gemmology
and consigned back to ornithology.

James B. Nelson, 1985, Journal
of Gemmology

After that,
the only question remaining is whether or not "spectrophotometered" is
a genuine English verb.

Color preferences do change with time. The preferred
color today is not necessarily that of a hundred, or even fifty, years ago. In
my experience, the color most coveted today is that akin to a red traffic signal
or stoplight. It is a glowing red color, due to the strong red fluorescence of
Burmese rubies, and is unequalled elsewhere in the world of gemstones. Thai/Cambodian
rubies may possess a purer red body color, but the lack of red fluorescence and
silk leaves them dull by comparison. It must be stressed that the true pigeon's-blood
red is extremely rare, more a color of the mind than the material world. One
Burmese trader expressed it best when he said: "…asking to see the pigeon's
blood is like asking to see the face of God."

The second-best color in Burma is termed "rabbit's
blood," or yeong-twe. It is a slightly darker, more bluish red. Third
best is a deep hot pink termed bho-kyaik. This was the favorite color
of the famous Mogok gem dealer, A.C.D. Pain. The literal meaning of bho-kyaik is "preference
of the British."

Fourth-best is a light pink color termed leh-kow-seet (literally 'bracelet-quality' ruby).
At the bottom of the ruby scale is the dark red color termed ka-la-ngoh. This
has an interesting derivation for it means literally either "crying-Indian
quality" or "even an Indian would cry," so termed because it was
even darker than an Indian's skin. Most dark rubies were sold in Bombay
or Madras, India. Ka-la-ngoh stones were said to be so dark that even
Indians would cry out in despair when confronted with this quality.

Figure 7 From
atop Daw Nann Gyi Taung, the Inn Gaung and Kyauk Phyu
mines are visible, along with the tin roofs of the western
edge of Kyatpyin. (Photo: R.W. Hughes)

Mogok: Looking ahead

What is it that draws us to ruby? Daw Nann
Gyi Taung, above Burma's valley of rubies,
is perhaps a fitting place to sit and ponder that
question. For hundreds of years, the finest rubies
the earth has ever seen have been taken from the
soil beneath this mountain. Countless fortunes
have been made, but for some, the crimson stones
have brought only grief.

In upcountry Burma, tin roofs are a sign of prosperity.
Below Daw Nann Gyi Taung, a veritable carpet of tin sprawls across the valley.
As I gaze into that valley, and across the jungled hills of the Shan State, thunderheads
build on the horizon, signaling the beginning of yet another storm. Before long,
the heavens are hammering out a steady rat-a-tat-tat drumbeat on the valley's
tin roofs. Once again, it is raining in Rubyland. And everything is fine. For
the first time in many decades, tomorrow looks better than today.

What is it that draws us to ruby? Like so many others
seekers before me, I had come to this remote valley looking for the red stone,
trying to get a little closer to this magnificent gem, perhaps to find an answer
to that question. And it was this that was on my mind as the rain pounded down
around me and I climbed down off Daw Nann Gyi Taung, deep in thought. Then, something
caught my eye. The rain had just uncovered a flash of crimson. And in that one
instant I found my answer. There on the ground before me lay a tiny fragment – all
of creation bundled up into one tiny pebble. I was home. My pilgrimage was at
an end. I had just seen the face of God.

Notes

Purer in the sense that the hue position is
closer to the center of the red (relative to purple and orange).
[ return to
article ]

Author's Afterword

After
dreaming about it for years, in April 1996 I finally made it
to Mogok and this piece is the result. It was first published,
in slightly butchered form, in Colored Stone (1996: Renaissance
in Rubyland, Vol. 9, No. 6, Nov.-Dec., pp. 29–33) and Momentum magazines
(1996, Vol. 4, No. 13, Dec. 1996–Feb. 1997, pp. 18–21).

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7 March, 2013

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